Globular Cluster Systems in Dwarf Galaxies: Catalogs and Comparisons

2025/12/09 by Dornan, Veronika, Harris, William E.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Scientific Research and Discoveries

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.08453

openalex publication_date 2025/12/09 · openalex created_date 2025/12/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The connection between a galaxy's total globular cluster system (GCS) mass and its halo mass has been studied for decades and it has been found that galaxies at nearly all observed masses adhere to a linear scaling relation between these properties. However, while we have ample, homogeneous data for galaxies with halo masses M_h \gtrsim 10¹⁰ M_\odot the data available for low-mass galaxies is more sparse, and both GCS mass and halo mass estimates are determined using varying methodologies. This work compiles all available literature data for dwarf galaxies with confident stellar mass and GC count estimates, and converts these estimates to GCS masses and peak halo masses using a standard conversion. This allows for a consistent comparison of these masses to be made and a complete study of the behaviour of the M_GCS-M_h relation to be conducted. We compare the positions of classical dwarfs on the scaling relation to that of ultra diffuse galaxies and extremely low-surface brightness galaxies and find that these non-classical dwarfs have, on average, systematically higher GC specific frequencies. This also makes them, on average, systematically positively offset from the M_GCS-M_h relation, driving much of the high-M_GCS scatter observed.

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Related

• Do Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies Follow the Globular Cluster-Halo Mass Relation?
• Globular Clusters in Dwarf and Giant Galaxies
• Do Ultra Diffuse Galaxies with Rich Globular Clusters Systems have Overly Massive Halos?
• Formation Efficiencies of Old Globular Clusters - from Dwarf to Giant Galaxies
• Massive Star Clusters in Dwarf Galaxies